A brand new game from 343 Industries called Halo Infinite was announced during E3 2018 and it has the potential to be the very best Halo yet.
The main reason why this is the case is that Halo Infinite will take on brave new challenges to expand the franchise in new directions. However, 343 Industries are committed to creating a game touches on the origins of what made the original Halo trilogy so special.
Let’s take a look at everything we know so far about Halo Infinite.
Halo Infinite Will Continue The Story From Halo 5
What’s been clear, despite the name change, is that Halo Infinite will continue the story that Halo 5 left off.
This means that whilst Halo Infinite sounds like a grander name and could hold bigger visions for the future of Halo, the campaign will still be at the core of it, Halo 6, at least to begin with.
Another thing to note is that this time around, the story will put more focus on the Master Chief again. In Halo 5, 343 Industries tried to stray from the protagonist by including a story about Agent Locke.
It seemed like a good idea in theory, but it was implemented poorly. Hopefully, a Master Chief focused story in the Halo Infinite campaign will do more to captivate players.
Besides that, and the very little we saw from the Halo Infinite announcement trailer, that’s all we have to go off of when it comes to the Halo Infinite story.
Halo Infinite’s Art Style Will Draw Inspiration From Halo’s Roots
It has been revealed to us that the 343 Industries design team are taking a lot of inspiration from Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, and Halo 3 to create a refined art style for Halo Infinite.
In terms of overall appearance, Halo Infinite will certainly go back to Halo’s roots. Perhaps this means that armor designs will be simpler, and more in line with what’s seen in Halo 2 and 3.
A good example of these changes is Master Chief’s helmet in the Halo Infinite E3 announcement trailer. You can clearly see similarities between the helmet shown and the helmets the Master Chief has during the first three Halo games.
Even though the art style will draw inspiration from the original Halo trilogy, 343 Industries will still take advantage of the power in the Xbox One and Xbox One X to create a much more beautiful game.
Expect New and Unexpected Directions
This brings us to our next point. The vision 343 Industries have for Halo Infinite is so big that they had to go and create a brand new game engine.
The brand new Slipspace engine has been built from the ground up to create an experience that takes Halo Infinite to new and unexpected directions.
Unfortunately, that means as little to me as it does to you. What it sounds like, however, is that Halo Infinite will be a larger scale game with more opportunity for an ever-evolving game.
Perhaps we’ll get an expansion of what Warzone was in Halo 5, or maybe Halo will try to recreate an experience similar to what’s seen in Destiny 2.
Halo Infinite Singleplayer and Multiplayer May Release Separately
It has been rumored that Halo Infinite will be split into two major releases. First, the singleplayer will launch and then later on the multiplayer will launch.
It seems like a strange way to do things, but it may be because the multiplayer may not be ready when the singleplayer is. This heavily suggests that Halo Infinite will take multiplayer into brave new directions.
Rockstar did a similar thing with GTA Online and now many years later, GTA Online is still one of the most played multiplayer games on the PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
If 343 Industries manage to pull something similar off with Halo Infinite, we’d be very impressed.
Being able to play the singleplayer before getting to experience the multiplayer is a bit of a blessing and a curse. In one way, it’d be nice to have the whole experience at once, but at the same time, being able to play the singleplayer first essentially means that we get to experience a new Halo game earlier.
As for release dates, it’s rumored that the singleplayer release for Halo Infinite will be in 2019 and then a multiplayer release will hit in 2020.
The release date could change. The chance for it to be pushed back is entirely possible considering how ambitious 343 Industries is being with Halo Infinite.
Hopefully, this isn’t the case.
Halo Infinite Will Be a Cross-Platform Title
Halo Infinite will be a cross-platform title in more ways than one. Firstly, PC players will be able to play the game. Halo Infinite will launch on the Microsoft Store for Windows 10 PCs alongside the Xbox One release date.
Secondly, some rumors suggest that Halo Infinite will be a long running game service that’ll outlive the life of the Xbox One. We know that a new gen Xbox console is coming, and Halo Infinite’s experience may continue to evolve and get new content past the release of the next console.
If this is the case, we’re still looking at 2 to 3 years at least before the new generation Xbox launches, so at that point, Halo Infinite will have hopefully been out for at least a year.
Summary
That wraps up everything we know about Halo Infinite so far. Admittedly, what we do know is quite limited, but it’s very exciting to see that 343 Industries are trying their hardest to take the Halo franchise into brave new directions.
This time, they’ll still be paying homage to the original trilogy. Halo 4 and Halo 5 struggled to gain the attention of many long term Halo fans because it strayed too far away from what made Halo great without actually implementing anything that new to the FPS genre.
What are your thoughts on Halo Infinite? Are you excited?